Start Here
Welcome to Death, Dying, and Bereavement
Welcome to Death, Dying, and Bereavement.
Every person you serve will one day die, and nearly every person you serve is grieving someone. Yet most of us know very little about what dying actually looks like, how people can live well after a terminal diagnosis, or why grief after a murder or a suicide is so different from grief after a long and peaceful life. This course is an in-depth study of those questions.
We begin with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the psychiatrist who opened the modern conversation about death, and with what later research confirmed and challenged in her work. We then follow the path most people walk: the physical and emotional process of dying, living with joy and meaning after a terminal diagnosis, the grief that begins before a death, grief after an expected death, and grief after a sudden, violent, or traumatic one. Throughout, you will learn to serve people of every faith and of none, including atheists and agnostics who do not expect to see their loved ones again.
This is a 300-level course. You will read the primary sources, weigh scholarly debates, and write a research paper. The material is also personal. Studying death often stirs our own losses. Go gently with yourself, and if you are ever in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | Five completed 200-level courses. This is a 300-level course. Rites of Passage (211) and Death, Dying, and Grief Across Traditions (204) are helpful background but not required. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in six to eight weeks, studying about six hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one research paper of 2,500 to 3,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
| Companion course | Children, Teens, and Grief (313) covers how children and teenagers understand death and how to help them grieve. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (research paper, 2,500 to 3,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1969; any edition)
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Atul Gawande (Metropolitan Books, 2014)
- Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner, J. William Worden (fifth edition, Springer Publishing, 2018)
These books are widely available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks. Shorter sources named in the lessons, such as hospice guides and the websites of support organizations, are free online.
What you will study
Module 1: Kübler-Ross and the Study of Death Module 2: What Dying Looks Like Module 3: Living Until the End Module 4: Grief Before the Death Module 5: Grief After an Expected Death Module 6: Sudden, Traumatic, and Violent Death Module 7: Grief Across Belief and Unbelief Module 8: The Minister at the Bedside and Beyond
Book report choices
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi; The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion; Mortality, Christopher Hitchens
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted. When you write about people you have served, change their names and details to protect their privacy.